Saturday, 12 December 2015

A Bitcoin on the ninth day of Christmas

IT was heartening this festive season to see a fellow Aussie being credited with creating the Bitcoin.

As you may know the Bitcoin is a digital currency often called a cryptocurrency for reasons known to people who know such things.

I have read a fair bit about Bitcoin, enough to know it is a legit investment though of a risky nature.

I am not going to go deeply into the technical side of Bitcoin because I would be out of my depth. I am quite happy to be confused but loathe to spread confusion. If you want to buy one or more Bitcoins at their current price of >$400 USD – why $400 USD is not a redundancy I will never figure out – you should go to a reliable currency exchange such as

seemed as good as any and better than most. Check the exchanges out for yourself to see what you think.

Is Satoshi Nakamoto really Keyser Sözeor Aussie Soandso?

Is this Satoshi Nakamoto?

A JAPANESE man Satoshi Nakamoto said he had invented the digital money Bitcoin in 2008. No one believed he was Japanese as his English was real good (grammatical joke there).

The word was that Nakamoto was an English-speaking genius or a pseudonym for a group of techies.

A week ago both Wired and Gizmodo magazines outed Australian Craig Steven Wright as the inventor of Bitcoin.

BITCOIN AUSSIE INGENUITY?

AN Australian invented the aircraft black box and another Aussie created the first sophisticated rotary motor mower, the Victa. The Bitcoin would be a handy addition to our national resume.

Mere hours after theoutings of Craig Steven Wright by Wired and Gizmodo about a dozen police raided Wright's New South Wales home and more raided his business premises.

The coppers said the raids were prompted by tax matters and had nothing to do with Bitcoins. No one believed them which means we must be getting quite cynical about authorities. Personally I do not believe Australian police could organize so quickly but an already planned raid could have been expedited.

WIRED magazinesays it contacted Wright and received a response from an IP address previously associated with emails sent by Nakamoto. Wired claimed that Wright mortgaged three properties and invested more than $US1m in computers, power and connectivity to launch the cryptocurrency.

Do I believe Wright is Nakamoto? My gut feeling says no though I can’t wait for the movie which proves me wrong. Previous positive identifications of Nakamoto have come to nothing.

ALL this intrigue can do little to harm the price of Bitcoins which fluctuates significantly. As the above chart shows Bitcoins are at their highest price for 12 months but they were three times as high in 2014. If you are an investor, it’s up to you to decide if Bitcoin will soar higher. If you want to buy a Bitcoin or three for fun, Christmas time is as good as any.

Below is a list of exchanges. As always when buying something do your homework and ensure the final decision is yours.